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Champions League final travel and match week guide

Barcelona
UEFA Champions League final
Wembley Stadium, North London
Saturday, May 28, kick off 19:45

This guide will be updated regularly until matchday

NoteIf the match goes to extra time, it will finish around 22:00

With penalties, it would finish around 22:20

The losing team’s fans can expect to leave the stadium at about 21:45 after normal time, 22:10 after extra time or 22:30 after penalties

The winning team’s fans can expect to leave the stadium at 22:45 after normal time, 23:10 after extra time and 23:30 after penalties.

Please bear the above in mind when considering when and how you plan to get home.

The winner of this match will play Porto, who won the Europa League, in the UEFA Super Cup at the Stade Louis II in Monte Carlo, Monaco on August 26, 2011, kick off 20:45 local time and 19:45 UK time.

The winner of the UEFA Champions League will also take part in the 2011 FIFA World Club World Cup in Japan, between Dec 8 and 18, with matches played in Tokyo, Yokohama and Toyota

The European representative would join the competition in the semi finals, around December 13.

Pre-match entertainmentStarting on May 21, UEFA will host a Champions League Festival at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park (pictured right).

Opening times are:
May 21/22 – 12:00 to 23:30
May 23-26 – 12:00 to 20:00
May 28: 12:00 to 17:00

It’s free to get in and you can
- get your picture taken with the trophy
- visit the Museum of Champions, showing photos and exhibits from previous finals
- take part in a football skills clinic
- watch players from across Europe play in the Ultimate Champions five-a-side contest

The journey usually takes three-and-a-half hours, but due to the London Marathon taking place the next day and the inevitable build up of cars around Wembley, we advise allowing five to six hours for your journey.

It will cost about £35 each way petrol (add on £4.80 each way if you plan on taking the M6 Toll road).

2. If you want something cheaper but need to park near the stadium, you will find quite a few car parks on industrial premises charging about £10 per car.

3. A good park-and-ride compromise is parking at a Tube stop and finishing your journey by Tube.

You can pay £1.50 to park all day at Ickenham Tube Stop car park, which has 176 spaces, then take the Metropolitan Line nine stops east to Wembley Park.

Buy a one-day six-zone Travel Card for £7.50, as two singles will cost £8. Wembley Park Tube has 186 parking spots at the same price, but remember that it will take you an age to get back on the motorway from there.

There is a free shuttle bus between Wembley Park Tube and the stadium on matchday. You can book places in loads of different tube stops here

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4. If you’ve got the time, you can easily find a free parking spot within five minutes’ walk of Ickenham Tube Stop.

You can then take the Metropolitan Line nine stops east to Wembley Park. Buy a one-day six-zone Travel Card for £7.50, as two singles will cost £8.

Train – £47 – updated Tuesday May 10

We strongly recommend buying train tickets in advance.

If you plan to take any of the trains below with no price below the time, it means it’s cheaper to book a £70 return rather than two singles.

The prices below show the cheapest return journey is £47. Click on the ad below to book now.

FridayDon’t travel before 10:00 as it will work out as too expensivee

Trains leave Manchester at these times at these prices and take roughly 2 hours and 10 minutes

NOTE FOR COACH AND MINIBUS ORGANISERS: Champion Sport Tours have organised a pre-match 600-capacity social club with large screen TVs, food and no pint costing more than £3. It has 600 parking spots. and is within six Tube stops of Wembley. email Debbu@mufctravel.com for details.

Thomas Cook Sport is running two packages

Day coach trip – £39

Coaches leave from the Old Trafford N2 car park on the morning of the game and return right after the game.

Day coach trip including £225 match ticket – £574 – sold out
One United Members, Season ticket holders and executive members in United’s European Travel Club could buy these packages.

Coaches will leave the Old Trafford N2 car park on the morning of the game.

On arrival in London, customers will get a champagne reception at the Le Gavroce restaurant and a three-course meal with wine and soft drinks.

They will then be taken by coach to Wembley and then taken by coach back to Manchester after the game.

Coaches will have Sky TV and soft drinks available.

The Betty Bus is running to this game, leaving Chorlton Street Coach Station in Manchester City Centre at 07:00 on matchday and returning after the game.

Places cost £32 per person. To book, email your name, contact phone number and required number of places to redsaway@hotmail.co.uk

Champion Sport Tours is running three trips to this game.

Day trip – £35 – sold out
There are seven coaches going, with places costing £35.

They leave from Sir Matt Busby Way outside Old Trafford at 08:00 and leave Wembley at around 22:30.

Coaches 1 and 2 are family coaches.

No alcohol is allowed on board.

Two-night trip by train – £185 – sold out

Customers will leave Manchester Piccadlly for London Euston on the morning of the day before the final and check in to a hotel in Centrl London.

The train leaves Euston for Piccadilly on the morning o the day after the game.

Two-night trip by coach – £190

Customers will leave from outside the Bishop’s Blaize pub in Chester Road, Trafford, at 11:00 on the day before the game and check into a quality London suburbs hotel.

The coach leaves the hotel for Manchester at 11:00 on the day after the game.

Including in the price are refreshments on te coach and a hotel meal the night before the game.

Getting to the ground – £7.30On the day of the game, trains from Euston to Wembley Central run every at 17, 37 and 57 minutes past the hour and cost £5 each way (you can’t buy a return). We strongly recommend booking your tickets in advance by clicking on the ad below).

If you prefer to go by Tube, you can take the Bakerloo Line to Wembley Central or the Metropolitan Line or Jubilee Line to Wembley Park.

Both are in zone 4, so, on the day, you will need to buy a day ticket covering zones 1 to 4 for £7.30.

87 comments to Champions League final travel and match week guide

I totally agree, anyone with credits for this year alone should get priority but it goes back to the same arguement of members loyalty for euro aways or ST holders loyalty to the season. It is a tough one but I still think the club should allow an exception to these members. There can’t be that many members that go to euro aways can there?? I reckon 1-2,000?

I am a member with several credits for euro aways. When Rome tickets became available and then there were returns I rang up to see if I was eligable and they said “no, season ticket holders take priority” Even though I had credits for all group games & knock-out stages. I dont think this is fair but there is nothing I, we, can do about it. I’m sure United will then think that it may sway my decision to get a season ticket next year.

lakey and stewart, i agree with what you both say. i wouldnt think there would be as many as 1-2000 members, but you never know, but id say there must be at least 500 who have done all 6 games, maybe 1500 who have done 5, and then 2000 plus who done others. out of the numbers who have done 5 or 6 games i would say most will be sth, there would be a small minority who are members, this is all guess work tho.

While I agree with you in principle about what they should do Lakey, that would be 1-2k more ST holders who dont get tickets and therefore are much more likely to not opt in for Carling Cup tlckets next year (or not renew at all knowing they can always get home tickets anyway). From club’s point of view there are not going to risk people not renewing STs, in order to look after members whom they get far less revenue from.

Oli you are right mate the club do have to look after sth,as from next season tho they shouldnt let members apply at all if we cant apply for a final after going to every away,there were sth who didnt get for the away at chelsea who wouldnt be best pleased,are they going to drop their sts because of that?

Fair point Oli, I just think that if club looked after all the euro away fans that travel every year (at a guess would be about 8k that have at least a credit this season, then there would still be around 17k tickets for qualifying ST holders and the ones that get rejected have no case to argue as they haven’t attended a single euro away. As you say though Oli club are more interested in people’s money going towards club revenue than supporters forking out £££’s for travel/accommodation etc

I don’t think STHs expect to get tickets for regular away games where there is an allocation of 3k or less, but they do start to get very angry if they domn’t get for finals where there is a big allocation. I know the current system is very unfair on members who go to euro aways, but I don’t see the motivation for the club to change the system.

Lets be honest though, if enough season ticket holders were to apply and go to Euro aways throughout the season they wouldn’t open it up to members to go. The only reason currently members can apply for Euros is because they know that they wouldn’t sell all the tickets for games in Turkey, Russia, Italy without members anyway.

And then for the later rounds they have to reward loyalty.

Personally i think they should ballot everyone in the Travel club and prioritise tickets based on number of credits.

That can’t be the case mockers as there surely must be more than 25,000 or so in the acs? Be good for the club to be more transparent with the numbers who hold what credit wise. Doubt that will happen though as hardly seems the whitest of organisations ticketing wise!

Zenith, I am not sure that’s true. When they start the loyalty fresh each season (why do they do that- it is mad????!!!) the first game is often very over subscribed – eg Valencia this season. That then sets the pace for who gets for the games all season from then on- apart from this year when anyone could have got for Bursa and then been back in the game. Surely, like all other tournaments (eg community shield or Moscow final), STs should apply first and then if any are left members can apply. Plenty of ST holders were rejected for Valencia this season when members got- every app was treated the same. Members would still get plenty of opportunities for euro aways if that were the came – as you say many would not sell out just to ST holders.

The other problem with what you say re ballot for anyone with credits is that a season ticket holder who has been to every home game in every competition and has applied for every domestic away game (and been to the ones they got tickets for) less worthy of a ticket than a member who did 1 Euro away to Ibrox with Thomas Cook for example?

Mockers, the numbers probably roughly suggest that, but not guaranteed. Because the final is in London and not Moscow (or even Rome) more execs, box holders, sponsors, club staff etc are likely to apply, plus plenty of ST holders did not apply for Moscow/ Rome, plus allocation is lower than other finals at Wembley (eg 31k for the semi the other week and 25k now). Having said that, I reckon you’d have to be pretty unlikely to miss out if in ACS.

My reason for stating this was that for the FA Cup semi ALL ST holders who had full credits for all the cup games (remember you can opt out of Carling cup games on a match by match basis) were successful AND some with 1 less than all cup games were also successful.

Granted we had 6-7,000 more tickets for the semi – but I reckon ST holders with full credits should be okay – or else as stated above what is the point in anyone opting into the ACS???

Maybe they will on top of this take into account away games applied for???

Hi Mockers, you’re probably roughly right, but as well as around 6k less tickets than Wembley, there is also the issue that more execs/ box holders/ sponsors etc will want to take their allocation than for the semi final. Hopefully most in the ACS will get as, like you said, you only needed 6 cup vouchers (out of 8 at the time, it is 10 now) to get for the semi in the end.

All the hotels above are south of London Centre and Wembley Stadium, do you know of any cheap hotels in the North of London near a tube or train stop because otherwise it means driving down past wembley through London to get to the hotel in the first place? Any help please mate

Surely the final allocation will be decided as per Rome (any man and his dog could get Moscow tickets!), with ST holders and Exec’s only being able to apply and priority given to those based upon the number of Euro away applications this season (not successful tickets).

If that is the case I personally think that ST holders with 3 away apps or more should get tickets, 2 border line (majority will probably miss out) and lower than this highly unlikely. Although as per some previous posts, loads of ST holders will have 2 apps given Rangers and Chelski were popular so it may just be 3 and above that could be successful.

Adam, your first para sounds about right, but I am not sure they will do based on applications (rather than actual credits) as they know loads applied for Chelsea and Schalke for the hell of it purely for that reason. The main thing that has changed since Rome is ticket collection- so there was not an issue then about people who applied, were successful but did not collect. Ticket collection also means people who share season tickets cannot do euro aways too as it may not be in their name. There is also another chage since Rome- the travel club- which has restricted how many people applied for games not least because no one with a previous criminal record can apply. I think they will do it based on credits only rather than applications, in which case anyone with any credits at all will get and there will be plenty left over for ST holders in the ACS with no Euro credits.

Knowing the demand to get in for this game there probably will be, but as for successfully getting in it’ll be tough as I saw two lads try for the city game last month and both got chucked out after getting through turnstiles. Security was tight and no doubt with uefa in town it’ll be even worse…just hope they don’t try anything stupid like banning alcohol around London like they did in Rome

Thinking about the FA Cup Semi – it would be dead easy getting in on the jib if you wanted.

BTW – do you get any sort of credit for applying for a Euro away – you used to in the past. Seems a little unfair that you would not get some sort of credit for applying for a Euro away ballot and not getting one.

Wasn’t there for semi due to work reasons. Did a decent number manage the jib? I assume for a game of this size though you’ll need a ticket to even get to the turnstiles as the police will have a cordon set up a good way in front of them where you have to flash your ticket

no mention of the ACS anywhere on the website for ticket apps, does anyone know if being in it as a season ticket holder has any relevance now?
also, does anyone have a rough idea of how many people have euro credits overall? i have 1 and obviously they are operating on a sliding scale, so after everyone with 1 credit has applied, how many do you reckon will have done?

Rob, it clearly mentions the ACS in saying only ST holders with 10 home vouchers (ie the ACS) can apply. Apparently around 7k have credits, but some of these may be members who cannot apply for the final.

Agree with Hesh – final will be full of corporates who don’t even support United, let alone willing to sing. Just hope all our real fans who get chubbed in the ballot can manage to get hold of the neutral tickets at a reasonable price. We may need a 12th man against Barca!!